He never found an unbreakable speed limit but, braking was the exciting part of riding with Dad. The blur of speeding was predictable. If we were in the car and dad was driving, and he always drove, we were speeding.

Braking hard was always a surprise. Some of our cars didn’t even have safety restraints. When the cars did have seat belts, they were buried in the seats because Dad hated them, reasoning, “If we are in a wreck and the car catches on fire, we might not be able to get the belts loose and we’d burn up.” He also comforted my seven year-old self with, “When we get in a wreck and get knocked out, the cops may not be able to get us loose before the car explodes.”

My safety restraints were the dashboard and the back of the front seat.